


The Message

by liane1787



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Episode: s05e15 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Angst, Bottom Sam, Canonical Character Death, Episode: s05e15 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Top Dean, Wincest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-04-24 10:21:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14353497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liane1787/pseuds/liane1787
Summary: Alternate to Episode 5.15 "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid". Instead of going to Sioux Falls, Death goes to Palo Alto and raises the dead there. Including Jess.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to the _amazing_ Ashley for beta'ing for me!
> 
> This is the first thing I've written in a looong time. Writer's block and some personal issues combined to completely sap me of my desire to write for a while. Then this story popped into my head and so here it is! Despite Ashley's best attempts (and believe me, she's awesome) I'm sure I've managed to screw something up. So any and all mistakes are mine. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, as well as those amazing kudos and comments!
> 
> Title is taken straight from the episode, where Karen tells Bobby that she was brought back to give him a message.
> 
> Starting off with a smut scene...just because. Hehe.

* * *

 

 

“Yeah, Sammy. God. So fuckin’ good, baby boy.”

 

Dean looked down and brushed a stray strand of hair out of Sam’s eyes, never losing his rhythm of driving hard against Sam’s prostate with every other thrust. The kaleidoscope blue-green-gold color of Sam’s eyes was just a thin ring around the huge, blown out pupils, and Dean was never going to get tired of that particular sight.

 

“Deeeean…” Sam tightened his legs around Dean’s waist and threw his head back against the pillow. So close. He was _so close_. He just needed a little more. He snaked one hand down between them to wrap around his cock, but Dean slapped it away.

 

“No way, baby. Come just like this,” Dean twined their fingers together and pinned both of Sam’s hands to the bed at his sides. “I know you can. Wanna see you come on my cock. Just from having me inside you. Come on.”

 

Sam moaned and pulled Dean in even harder with each thrust.

 

“C’mon, Sammy,” Dean nipped at Sam’s lower lip. “Come for me, little brother.”

 

Sam’s eyes rolled back. Dean calling him little brother in the middle of sex – the _baddirtywrong_ -ness of it – drove him absolutely wild.

 

“Oh, fuck! DEAN!”

 

“Yeah. Fuck, yeah,” Dean managed a few more stuttering thrusts before he was following Sam over the edge, his vision nearly whiting out with the force of his orgasm.

 

They both lay there panting for several moments, just trying to get their breaths back. Finally, they locked eyes and Sam pushed at one of Dean’s shoulders.

 

“Get off me, jerk. You’re heavy.”

 

“You love it, bitch,” Dean smirked down at him. “You like all that girly, cuddling shit. It’s basically the same thing.”

 

“You passing out on top of me after sex is _not_ the same as cuddling,” Sam protested.

 

“You’re way too coherent,” Dean grumbled. He pulled out slowly, and stumbled to the bathroom for a washcloth. “Shouldn’t you still be all boneless and passed out from the awesome orgasm?”

 

“Been reading fan fiction again, Dean?” Sam laughed and just barely caught the wet washcloth that came flying out of the bathroom towards his face. “No, seriously. I think it’s cute.”

 

“I’ll show you cute, asshat,” Dean warned. “Cut you off for a damn week. Make you sleep on the floor. See how cute that is.”

 

“Like you could go a week without it,” Sam’s smirk stayed firmly in place. “It’d take one night. You’d come crawling back.”

 

Just because it was true didn’t mean Dean had to admit it. Instead, he leaned down and kissed Sam hard and deep. Sam let his hands drift to Dean’s hips and hummed happily into the kiss.

 

They’d both missed this. Between Dean coming back from Hell, the angels, Ruby, the Seals, Lucifer rising, and the looming Apocalypse – not to mention the plethora of trust issues between them – re-starting the “more than brothers” part of their relationship had seemed out of reach for a long time. Nearly losing Dean to that he-witch, Patrick, had been the final straw, though. It had taken Dean nearly dying (again) to make them realize how short time could really be. How all it would take was the whim of some supernatural creature to make them forever regret never truly making up. Things still weren’t quite the way they had been between them. It would take more than a few weeks for that to happen. But they were working towards it. Making progress.

 

“I love you,” Sam whispered as they parted.

 

“I know,” Dean smiled and brushed his knuckles over Sam’s cheek fondly.

 

On the nightstand, Sam’s phone began to ring.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

 

 

“I’ll be damned,” Sam’s eyes lit up when he saw the name on the caller ID.

 

“What’s up?” Dean quirked an eyebrow. He was struggling to untangle his boxers from his jeans, which had been discarded in a bit of a hurry when they’d gotten back to the room.

 

“Well if it isn’t little Becky!” Sam answered the phone, ignoring Dean.

 

“Sam? Oh, thank god. I had no idea if this number was even still yours. I’m glad I got you.”

 

Rebecca sounded upset. That, combined with the fact that she hadn’t even bothered to snip back at him for the ‘Little Becky’ comment, made red flags start flying up in Sam’s brain.

 

“Rebecca? What’s going on?” Sam’s tone immediately made Dean’s head snap up. He abandoned his fight with his jeans and made his way back over to the bed.

 

“Who?” he asked. Sam just waved him off. There’d be time for explanations later. After he found out what had Rebecca so freaked out.

 

“There’s…it’s…look, I don’t really know for sure if…but I think…”

 

“Easy, slow down, Beck,” Sam soothed her. “Take a deep breath, alright? Are you okay? Is Zack?”

 

“Yeah. Okay, yeah,” Rebecca took a shaky breath. “Zack and I are both fine. Sort of, anyway. It’s…okay, so I’m back at Stanford. I got offered a job there. That doesn’t really matter, though. God, I’m rambling. Sam, I think there might be another shape shifter here. Like that one back in St. Louis, remember?”

 

“Of course I remember,” it still made him nauseous to remember seeing the mirror-image of Dean lying there, dead, riddled with bullets. “What makes you think that it’s a shifter? It’s not that I don’t believe you. I do. It’s just sort of a big coincidence, you know?”

 

“What about a shifter? Sam! Talk to me!” Dean growled in frustration as Sam waved him away again.

 

“Look, I can’t really talk about it on the phone,” Rebecca said. “Can you just…can you get here? I know I’m not giving you a lot to go on, but please, Sam? You know I wouldn’t bother you with this unless I was sure. This is really important. Please?”

 

“I know. I trust you, Beck,” Sam dragged a hand through his hair tiredly. “We’ll be there. Give us about a day. We’re just outside Sioux Falls, so it’ll take some time, but we’ll get there as soon as we can.”

 

“Alright. Thanks Sam. I’ll text you my address, okay?”

 

“Dude, what the hell?!” Dean snapped as Sam hung up. “Who was that? What the hell is going on? Does the Apocalypse ring a bell? Or the fact that you literally _just_ finished detoxing off of demon blood again? What makes you think we’re gonna just drop everything and run off on some shifter case that might not even be a case?!”

 

“No Dean, I completely forgot that I just spent the past week in a panic room in Bobby’s basement hallucinating and feeling like my insides were boiling,” Sam snatched his jeans off the floor and yanked them on angrily. “Oh, and letting Lucifer out of the Cage and starting the Apocalypse? Forgot about that, too. Thank you for reminding me!”

 

“C’mon, Sammy. You know I didn’t mean it like that,” Dean sighed. “Back up a little. How about you start with telling me what the hell that phone call was?”

 

“Fine,” Sam tugged a shirt over his head, still seething. Whether Dean had meant it ‘like that’ or not, it still stung. “You remember my old Stanford friend, Rebecca Warren? We helped her and her brother Zack out with that shifter case in St. Louis a couple of years back.”

 

“Ugh. How could I forget?” Dean shuddered. “That was her?”

 

“Yeah. She’s back in Palo Alto, and she’s pretty sure there’s another shifter out there. Said she couldn’t really go into a lot of detail over the phone, but if Rebecca is freaked out enough to call, it has to be something. She’s not the type to freak out over nothing.”

 

“So let’s call Bobby and get him to put another hunter on it,” Dean suggested. “We kind of have bigger things going on, y’know.”

 

“I told her we’d be the ones to handle it. If you don’t want to come, then don’t. Do whatever the fuck you want, Dean. I’m still going.” Sam started stuffing things into his duffel. Damn it all. It seemed like for every step forward they took together, they got pushed two steps back. Ten minutes ago they’d been happy and content with each other. Now they were fighting again. It was frustrating and depressing.

 

“Hey. Hold up a second,” Dean grabbed Sam’s wrist and forced him to stop. “This went off the rails fast. I didn’t mean to start a fight. We’ll go. It’s not like we really have anything to go on with Lucifer or the other two Horsemen. A shifter case might be nice to ease back into things after the shit show of that last hunt with Famine, anyway.”

 

“I can handle it,” Sam insisted. He tried to pull his wrist out of Dean’s grip, which only made Dean hold on tighter. “It should only take a couple of days and I can meet back up with you.”

 

“Don’t be like this, baby,” Dean pleaded. “Please? We were good just a few minutes ago, and I know I fucked that all up. It’s what I’m good at, I guess. Can we not fight anymore, though? I don’t want to go back to that, constantly being at each other’s throats.”

 

“That’s not ‘what you’re good at’, Dean,” Sam’s eyes softened and he finally relaxed into Dean’s arms. “I don’t want to give up on all the progress we’ve made, either. We’re finally getting _us_ back. I’m being an ass. Palo Alto, Stanford…it brings back a lot of memories, you know? I guess I’m a little anxious about going back.”

 

“I’d be more worried if you weren’t doing your emo thing and being freaked out about going back there,” Dean kissed the top of Sam’s head. “So…we good?”

 

“We’re good, De,” Sam smiled.

 

“Thank god. Because much more of that chick flick moment and we were both gonna start growing lady parts,” Dean joked. “Give me five minutes to get packed and then we’ll hit the road, okay?”

 

Sam glanced down and smirked.

 

“You might want to put some pants on first. Much as I’d enjoy a naked road trip, I don’t think the cops would agree.”

 

“You have no sense of adventure, Sammy.”


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

 

 

College students darted back and forth as the Impala rumbled to a stop in front of the address that Rebecca had sent. Dean glanced down at Sam, who was curled up under his arm, asleep. Despite having made up before they’d left, the ride to California had still been long, tense, and quiet as Sam had dealt with the idea of going back to where he’d lost so much. All Dean could think to compare it to was the way he’d felt that day when Sam had announced they needed to go back to Lawrence to the house where Mom had died. So he’d stayed quiet, kept the music to a non-ear-splitting volume, and let Sam work through his thoughts. About two hours ago Sam had crawled across the big bench seat and tucked himself under Dean’s arm, falling asleep almost immediately.

 

“Sam…Sammy,” Dean nudged his brother gently, silently apologizing at having to wake him. “Wake up, kiddo.”

 

“Huh?” Sam blinked blearily.

 

“We’re here,” Dean motioned to the building they were parked next to.

 

“Oh,” Sam glanced around and a look of what could almost be called despair flitted across his features before he quickly wiped it away and made his face go blank. Dean ran his hand comfortingly through Sam’s hair, but he wasn’t surprised when Sam jerked away from him and climbed out of the car.

 

By the time Dean was circling around to the trunk to retrieve their duffels, Sam had already rung the bell for Rebecca’s apartment. A moment later, the blonde woman was racing out the door and throwing her arms around Sam.

 

“Thank you so much,” she finally let go of Sam and gave Dean a shaky smile.

 

“We’re happy to help,” Dean nodded at her and tossed Sam’s bag to him.

 

“Let’s head up and you can tell us what’s going on, okay?” Sam suggested.

 

“Well…umm…” Rebecca looked guiltily from one brother to the other.

 

“What?” they both asked at the same time.

 

“I sort of…haveitinmyapartment,” she mumbled.

 

“Whoa, slow down. You _what?_ ” Sam demanded.

 

“It’s in my apartment,” Rebecca repeated, slower this time, looking guilty. “I hate to say this after making you guys drive all this way, but I think this is going to be more complicated than just a shape shifter this time.”

 

“What makes you say that, Beck?” Sam asked. “You seemed pretty sure on the phone.”

 

“I was, at first,” Rebecca said. She held out her hand so they could both see a silver bracelet around her wrist. “Last time you guys told me that silver reveals a lot, so I wear this all the time now as a precaution so I’ll know if I ever run into some kind of… _thing_ again. I saw the shape shifter – what I thought was a shape shifter anyway – again this morning and I made sure that my bracelet touched it. Nothing happened.”

 

“That’s pure silver?” Sam lifted Rebecca’s wrist to look closer at the bracelet.

 

“One hundred percent,” Rebecca assured them.

 

“Then it’s definitely not a shifter,” Dean frowned.

 

“Not a revenant, either then,” Sam pointed out. “Most likely not a zombie, either.”

 

“Wait, zombies?” Rebecca’s eyes darted back and forth between them. “Those are real?”

 

“Yeah, but they’re not much like the movies make them out to be,” Dean said offhandedly. “A ghoul, maybe?”

 

“Maybe,” Sam shrugged.

 

“Easy way to figure it out,” Dean went back to the trunk and glanced around cautiously before opening the false bottom and pulling out a machete.

 

“Just…you guys might want to wait a second,” Rebecca looked pleadingly up at Sam. “I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as that.”

 

“Why not?” Sam asked.

 

“Because…”

 

“Becca? You’ve been down here awhile. Everything okay?”

 

All three of them turned to face the new voice that came from the doorway. When he saw the woman standing there, Dean’s eyes went wide and he immediately whipped around to look over at Sam. Sam, who had gone a sickly, ashy shade of pale, and whose eyes were filling with tears.

 

“Jess?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. This chapter did not want to be written! I don't know why I had such a rough time, but I ended up writing it a total of three times. One original and two re-writes. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but...*shrugs*. Hopefully y'all like it! Constructive criticism, comments, and kudos are always much appreciated. Thank you so much to those of you who have left them, and thanks for reading everybody!

* * *

 

 

A myriad of emotions flitted across Sam’s face – surprise, confusion, sadness, disbelief – before it finally settled on anger.

 

“You _bitch_!” he spat. “What gives you the _right_?!”

 

He advanced on whatever the creature wearing Jess’s face was and it flattened itself against the side of the building. At the last second Dean grabbed Sam’s arm and held him back before he actually got his hands on the thing. Whatever it was, it at least _looked_ like a woman and they were already drawing a few curious eyes.

 

“You don’t get to do this! You don’t get to wear her face!” Sam struggled against Dean’s hold. He felt tears on his face, but couldn’t manage to care.

 

“Sam. Hey,” Dean shook him a little. The curious glances were turning into full-on stares at this point. “This isn’t the place for this. Come on. We’ll figure this out, just not here.”

 

“Sam…Baby…” the thing that looked like Jess was crying, too.

 

“Don’t you dare,” Sam warned darkly. “You’re not her, so don’t you fucking dare pretend like you are.”

 

“Enough,” Dean ordered. “Upstairs, now. Rebecca, can you get them up to your apartment? I have a couple of things to grab from the trunk and I’ll be there.”

 

“Of course,” she agreed, gently putting an arm around Sam. “Come on, sweetie.”

 

Sam wrenched out of her hold and motioned for the Jess look-a-like to go first. No way in hell was he letting the monster wearing his dead girlfriend’s face out of his sight for even a second. She was still crying, which sent an instinctive pang of protectiveness through him, and he pushed it away forcefully. No matter how much it looked like Jess, it wasn’t her.

 

“Sit,” Sam pushed ‘Jess’ down into one of the dining room chairs when they got up to Rebecca’s apartment. “Don’t move.”

 

“Sam, please. I don’t know what’s going on, but if you just give me a second, baby…”

 

“You don’t get to call me that,” Sam spat through gritted teeth. “In fact, I suggest you shut the fuck up completely and enjoy what little time you have left in your miserable life. Because my brother and I are going to figure out what you are and when we do, trust me, you’re going to regret using her.”

 

“My god. Sam…what happened to you?” the confusion in the thing’s eyes was so believable it could practically be real.

 

“What happened is that my girlfriend died and you’re sitting here wearing her face!” Sam clenched his fists and had to fight the urge to put one of them through the nearest wall. “What happened is that I’m three blocks from where I lost the love of my life, staring into her eyes and knowing that it isn’t her! What happened is that when I lost her, I lost _everything_ I ever wanted for my life! That’s what happened. So either be helpful and tell me what you are, or shut the hell up.”

 

“Understand that either way, we _will_ figure it out,” Dean’s voice came from the still-open front door. Sam whipped around guiltily. How much had Dean heard? His expression was neutral, but that didn’t necessarily rule anything out. “Your cooperation isn’t necessary. It just makes our job a little easier.”

 

“I’m not anything!” the thing shouted. “I don’t know what you want me to say! I’m just me. Do whatever you have to. Whatever will prove that I’m not…whatever it is you think I am.”

 

All four of them stood, staring at each other for a few beats. Dean was the first to move, pulling things out of his duffel and lining them up on the table.

 

“Salt. Holy water. Silver. Iron,” he listed. He glanced over at Rebecca. “I know you said you tested her with silver already – and I believe you – but call me paranoid. I have to see it for myself.”

 

“So what do I need to do with this stuff?” 

 

“First thing you can do is drink this,” Dean picked up the salt and emptied some into the jug of holy water.

 

‘Jess’ made a face as she took the bottle, but after a quick shudder she took a big gulp of the salt water. She coughed a little at the taste, but that was the only reaction.

 

“Two down, two to go,” Dean picked up the silver knife next.

 

“What are you going to do with that?” the Jess look-a-like’s eyes darted from the silver knife in Dean’s hand to the iron one still lying on the table. She turned wide, scared eyes up to Sam.

 

“Relax,” Dean snapped. “All I’m gonna do is nick you a little. If you really are ‘just you’, then you have nothing to worry about.”

 

A small cut to the top of her forearm with the silver knife didn’t have any more reaction than the salt and holy water mix had. Dean glanced over at Sam for just a second as he picked up the iron knife. Sam was pacing anxiously, and if the iron knife had the same lack of reaction as the other two tests…well, things had the potential to get complicated fast.

 

Dean made another small cut to the other arm, and watched as all that happened was a small well of blood from the nick.

 

“Sam, I…” Dean shook his head.

 

“Jesus,” Sam ran his hands through his hair agitatedly. “I…I should call Bobby. There has to be something we missed. Some other test.”

 

“Sammy…”

 

“I mean, I can’t think of anything that fits that we didn’t just test for, but who knows?”

 

“Sammy…”

 

“There’s got to be plenty out there that we don’t know about. Bobby’ll have something in his library. He’ll know…”

 

“Sam!” Dean’s voice finally broke through Sam’s rambling.

 

He turned to see Dean staring at him with concern written all over his face. Rebecca was standing just off to the side with an identical look on her face.

 

“Stop it, Sam,” Dean lowered his voice again now that he had Sam’s attention. “Just stop. It’s okay, babe…baby brother.”

 

Dean paled for a second at his slip up. The godawful, helpless look on Sam’s face was like a knife to his chest, and the desperate “make it okay, fix it, make Sammy better” in his brain overrode his sense of who was around them. Thankfully, neither of the women seemed to have caught it.

 

“No, no it’s not okay! None of the tests worked!” Sam’s chest heaved. He couldn’t breathe. It felt like he just couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, no matter how hard he tried. “That means…it means…she’s not…Jess is…oh my god. Jess?”

 

“Yeah,” Jess stood slowly out of the chair, glancing nervously over at Dean as she did. “It’s me, baby.”

 

“Holy shit,” Sam stumbled forward. “It’s really you? You’re really here? Like, for real?”

 

“For real,” Jess gave a watery laugh. “Told you so.”

 

“Jesus. Oh my god. Jesus,” Sam was suddenly a flurry of movement as he wrapped his arms around Jess and buried his face in her hair. He breathed in the old, familiar scent of her that he thought he’d never get the chance to smell again. “Jess. I’m sorry. Christ, I’m so sorry.”

 

“For what? You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jess leaned back so that she could look up into his eyes. “Listen to me. There’s nothing you have to apologize for, baby.”

 

“There is. There’s so much,” Sam shook his head. “ _So_ goddamn much. Things I should’ve told you. Things I should’ve said and done. I don’t even know where to start.”

 

“It can wait,” Jess told him. She smiled up at him, stretched onto her tiptoes, and brought their lips together in a soft, consuming kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, please, _pretty please_ don't hate Sam for some of the things he said/did in this chapter? (Or me for writing him that way, for that matter, lol). Keep in mind that he's upset, confused, hurting, and that this is meant to be a very tense, angst-filled story. He's not a bad person. I just stuck our poor Sammy in a complicated situation for the sake of building tension and angst.   
>  Thanks again for reading, everybody. Love y'all! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for making y'all wait so long for this chapter. It's a lot longer than the first few, if that makes up for it!
> 
> A _lot_ has happened this past month that made it hard to find time to write. Mix of good and bad. 
> 
> On the good side I now have a brand new, absolutely precious, adorable baby nephew! I also took a week long trip to be there when my best friend graduated from veterinary school. She's worked really hard and I'm _so_ proud of her! 
> 
> On the bad side, prior mentioned adorable, precious nephew scared the you-know-what out of everyone by coming a month before he was due (thankfully he's doing well, but it was still a pretty scary situation); and a freak tornado hit, totaling one of our vehicles and doing some damage to the house with falling trees. I'm from the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania, so a tornado around here is like a once every ten or fifteen years event and none of us were prepared for it. Power was out for about a week and clean up has been a massive event.
> 
> Hopefully that's been enough excitement for one month and I can get back on a normal schedule again! I hope everyone is still enjoying the story, and thank you all for the amazing comments and kudos! The angst continues to build in this chapter, so hopefully y'all like it.
> 
> <3

* * *

For a few blissful moments, Sam let himself get lost in the kiss. Let himself simply bask in the fact that it was Jess, and she was here, and they were kissing, and that was all that mattered. Until his brain kicked into gear. Because it was _Jess._ And she was _here_. And how that had happened mattered a whole hell of a lot.

 

Sam pulled gently away from Jess. He smiled down at her, but the smile was strained.

 

“I know that look,” Jess sighed. “All of those things you wanted to tell me, they can’t wait, can they?”

 

“No,” Sam answered. “They can’t. I’m sorry. I wish they could, but I made the mistake of not telling you once and I can’t screw up like that again so they just…”

 

“Can’t,” Jess finished for him, nodding.

 

She squeezed his hand fondly and pulled him over to the couch where she immediately snuggled up against his side. Sam automatically draped an arm around her, exactly like he used to, marveling at how easily they were slipping right back to how they used to be. Rebecca sat on the other side of Jess and the two women joined hands, sharing a teary-eyed smile.

 

“So, uh, sorry about all that back there,” Dean rubbed at the back of his neck and shifted his weight from foot to foot. With Sam, Jess, and Rebecca all curled together, he was definitely feeling like an outsider.

 

“You were doing what you had to,” Jess reassured him. “I don’t know exactly what that was all about, or what you thought I was, but it was obviously something that needed to be done.”

 

“Right,” Dean cleared his throat nervously and glanced at Sam.

 

Except Sam’s attention was focused solely on the woman in his arms. He was looking at her with an expression of such raw, open love that Dean had to push back a wave of sudden jealousy. Even in places where people didn’t know they were brothers, it wasn’t like he and Sam often got the chance to show how they felt about each other that freely. And the way that Sam and Jess were just immediately fitting themselves back together – as if it was the most natural thing in the world – was like a kick in the face. Especially when, even after such a long time of working at it, he and Sam still struggled.

 

“What’s the last thing you remember?” the question came out a bit more gruffly than Dean intended, but he pushed on. “From when you…or, I mean, before you…”

 

“You mean how much do I remember about dying?” Jess asked. She raised an eyebrow in a bit of amusement at Dean’s stumbling, but quickly turned serious again. “Not a lot. Enough, I guess, but not much.”

 

“Thank god for that,” Sam tightened his arms around her even more.

 

“What do you remember about it, though?” Dean questioned. “And what do you remember about coming back? Anything you can tell us will be useful.”

 

“I remember that night,” Jess frowned a little as she thought back. “I remember getting the call that you guys were on your way back from that hunting trip or whatever it was when you’d gone to look for your dad. I can remember baking cookies, and then Brady came by.”

 

“Brady was there?” Sam glanced over at Rebecca, who just shrugged.

 

“After the…” a warning glance from both brothers had Rebecca backpedaling from the word fire. “Well, after everything Brady never said anything about being at your apartment that night. Just the opposite, in fact. There were a couple of times where he said he wished he’d been there to be able to do something, to help in some way.”

 

“What was it that he wanted?” Dean wasn’t sure who this Brady guy was, but he had a bad feeling that he knew where the conversation was headed.

 

“Nothing, really,” Jess answered. “He’d stopped by and asked if we could talk. He was kind of going through a rough patch, and Sam and I could usually help pull him through those, so I guess that was probably it. I started to make some coffee for him and then…um, that’s it. That’s all I remember.”

 

“We need to work on your lying skills,” Dean rolled his eyes. “Because that was seriously one of the shittiest lies I’ve ever heard, and that’s coming from a long line of listening to and making up some bad lies.”

 

“Dean!” Sam snapped protectively.

 

“Easy. No need to go all alpha male, overprotective grizzly on me,” Dean teased with an easy grin that didn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. “All I’m saying is that I know a lie when I hear one.”

 

“Dean might be a little blunter about things than most people would be,” Sam shot another glare at his brother before turning back to Jess. “But he is right, sweetheart. There’s something more you’re not saying. Talk to me. I swear, anything you say, I’m not going to tell you that you’re crazy or laugh at you or anything like that.”

 

“I know you wouldn’t,” Jess gave him a thin smile. “It’s just that what I saw…what I _thought_ I saw…it couldn’t be real. I don’t know where I got the idea from, but it’s got to be something I made up for some reason.”

 

“Tell us what you think you saw, then,” Sam squeezed her hand.

 

“Okay, look, this is going to sound completely _insane_ ,” Jess jumped up to start pacing, although they all noticed that she still stayed well clear of Dean. “But I swear I turned away for one minute to make a pot of coffee and when I turned back, Brady’s eyes…they’d changed. They were black. I don’t mean dilated, like he was high on something. I mean completely, one hundred percent, pitch black. See? I told you. Crazy. People don’t have completely black eyes, and they certainly don’t have eyes that change from blue to black like that.”

 

“Jesus,” Sam paled and looked up, wide-eyed at Dean.

 

“Hold on. First things first. Who’s this Brady character?” Dean asked. He needed some background here.

 

“A guy I met back in freshman year of college. We were roommates for a year,” Sam’s voice lowered dangerously as the full implication of everything started to hit him. “He’s the one who introduced me to Jess.”

 

“Shit,” Dean swore. “Back when he introduced you two, do you think he was…”

 

“Yeah,” Sam interrupted. “During sophomore year he went home for Thanksgiving and when he came back he was completely different. I should’ve seen it. I should’ve known. Damn it!”

 

“Hey, whoa, take it easy,” Dean tried to calm him. “We barely knew anything about demons back then. You couldn’t have known, Sammy.”

 

“Demons?” both Rebecca and Jess questioned.

 

“The black eyes,” Dean sighed and explained. “Your friend Brady was possessed by a demon. It was Brady’s body, but a demon was the one controlling it.”

 

“Wait. Back up a second,” Jess put her hands to her head. “ _Demons_? You’re talking about demons being real like it’s the most normal thing in the world.”

 

“I know it’s hard to believe, but yeah,” Dean kept a sharp eye on Sam while he explained further to Jess. “Demons are real. So are ghosts. Vampires. Ghouls. Shape shifters. Plus a lot of other horror movie type stuff. We hunt them. Kind of the family business. When Sam came here to go to school, he was trying to break away from that, which is why he never told you any of this. Ultimately, most people are safer not knowing any of this crazy crap, so he was trying to keep you safe by not telling you. I wish we didn’t have to tell you about it now, but…” he broke off with a shrug.

 

“Sam?” Jess looked to him.

 

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Sam’s shoulders slumped. “I thought you were safer not knowing, but instead it was just the opposite. Instead of being safer I got you…hurt by not being honest. That’s why I didn’t want to wait before telling you now. I can’t put you in that kind of danger again.”

 

“This is…it’s all…this is just…” Jess took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. “I don’t know what to think about this. If anyone else told me this stuff I’d say they were either lying or insane. I know you wouldn’t lie to me though, and while you might be sort of a little crazy,” Jess gave him a small smile to show that she was joking, “I know you’re not insane, either. Which means you have to be telling the truth. So…what did a demon want with me?”

 

“He wasn’t exactly after you,” Sam winced. “You were a means to an end for him. Well, the demon he was working for, anyway.”

 

“Means to an end? What end?” Jess asked.

 

“Sam,” Dean answered. “Look, there’s something really big going on right now. I’d rather not read you in on that crazy until we have a better idea of what to do about it, but trust me when I say it’s huge. And for this huge thing to happen, they needed Sam in the game. Which wasn’t going to happen with him living his dream of a normal, perfect life.” A bit of bitterness crept back into Dean’s tone. “So they ruined it. Made it not so perfect. Gave him a reason to go back to being a hunter.”

 

“And I played right into their hands,” Sam admitted. “I was a wreck without you, Jess. I crashed and burned, just like we always said I would.” He let out a small laugh at their old joke. “I made a lot of bad choices, and a lot of stupid mistakes. And recently…I made a _really_ huge one. One that let something out that should never have seen the light of day ever again. The mistake they’d been setting me up to make since before I’d even been born.”

 

“It wasn’t entirely his fault,” Dean jumped in. “I made my share of mistakes, too. We each just kept compounding on top of the other one’s mistakes until it got out of control and caused the situation we’re in now.”

 

“So this ‘situation’,” Jess said in air quotes. “You think that me being back is somehow connected to it?”

 

“We don’t know,” Dean said. “Most likely, though. Do you remember anything about coming back?”

 

“Some,” Jess sat back down against Sam to think. “Most of it’s hazy. I can remember being somewhere good, though. I was happy. Sam and I were together, a family. Then suddenly I was waking up on the ground in a cemetery. And there was…a man? He was thin, so thin, like a skeleton. And he had this cane. He said that the others and I were here as a message.”

 

“Message?” Sam asked.

 

“Others?” Dean asked at the same time.

 

“A message for Sam,” Jess glanced up at Sam, answering his question first. “I don’t understand what he meant, but he said I was being sent as a message to get you to stop saying no. Whatever that means. And yes, others. There were probably at least a dozen of us all lying there.”

 

“That’s not at all ominous,” Dean muttered. “Sam, you and I need to talk. Alone. Now.” He didn’t bother to wait for an answer before stalking out the door.

 

Sam shot an apologetic look at Jess and Rebecca and then trotted after Dean. He caught up with his brother down at the Impala, where Dean was shoving things angrily back into the trunk and yanking others back out, just as angrily.

 

“Fuck. God damn it. Son of a bitch,” Dean let out a steady stream of curses until he was done, and then slammed the trunk closed harder than he would normally ever treat his baby.

 

“Dean…” Sam started.

 

“Do you even realize how _screwed_ we are, right now?” Dean snapped.

 

“Look, I get it. It’s not exactly ideal to have a dozen or more people suddenly pop out of their graves, but I don’t know if I’d jump right to saying that we’re screwed,” Sam frowned.

 

“That’s not the point! A dozen zombies walking around, yeah that’s kinda irritating, but I’m talking about what she said about being brought back to give you a message,” Dean growled. “She was brought back to get you to stop saying no to Lucifer? In what universe does that not sound like we’re about to get fucked over big time?”

 

“I just don’t see how Jess being back is supposed to be a bad thing!” Sam argued. “It’s not like I’m planning on running to Lucifer with open arms because I’m ‘just so grateful’ that he had Death bring my girlfriend back. At least, I’m assuming that’s who she means when she said ‘a thin man with a cane’.”

 

“Forget about all that for a second. You’re not seeing the bigger picture here, Sammy,” Dean rubbed at his forehead in frustration. “Who knows what Lucifer’s plan is? Because it is ultimately his plan. I do know he didn’t do this out of the goodness of his heart, though. He does have a plan to use this against you somehow. And then, on top of all of that, we have the other dozen or so people he had brought back for who knows what reasons. Every single thing here is pointing to it biting us in the ass, and it’d be nice if you’d open your damn eyes and see that!”

 

“I’m not an idiot, Dean!” Sam felt his temper flare. “I know Lucifer’s probably planning on threatening her to get me to say yes. I know we have to make a plan to keep her safe for when he does that. And I know we have to figure out what’s going on with all these other people walking around. Can I have five minutes to enjoy the fact that Jess is alive, though? I’m not asking us to put averting the Apocalypse on hold, I’m just asking for five minutes!”

 

“Jesus Christ,” Dean got right up in Sam’s face. “You really, truly don’t get it, do you? You’ve actually managed to convince yourself that this isn’t some trap. You have your head so far up your ass you can’t see what’s really going on. No, actually. You know what? Your head is so far up _her_ ass that you don’t _want_ to see what’s really going on.”

 

Really, the punch to his jaw shouldn’t have come as a surprise, Dean thought as he staggered back against the car.

 

“I think I see what this is really about just fine, Dean,” Sam shook out his aching hand. “It’s got nothing to do with Lucifer, or Death, or any of those other people rising from the dead. It’s all about Jess. You’re fucking _jealous_.”

 

“And what if I am?!” Dean exploded. “Huh? What if I am jealous? Why shouldn’t I be? You’ve got your ‘everything’ back,” Dean shot Sam’s earlier words back at him, “so what’s stopping you from taking off, ditching me, ditching all of this, and going back to your perfect little life again? And none of this even has a single damn thing to do with the fact that you _still_ won’t open your eyes and realize that there’s more going on than you getting the love of your life back.”

 

“Dean…” Sam felt the anger drain out of him and guilt quickly filled the space where it had been. He stared helplessly across at his brother. “It’s not like that. You weren’t supposed to…I just meant that…”

 

“Save it,” Dean snapped. He took a deep breath and straightened up. “I’m going to see what I can find out about these other people who popped up, get locations on them so that if and when things go bad we know where they are. You stay here. Spend some time with Jess and Rebecca. See what they know, see if Jess remembers anything more that might help us.”

 

“Dean, wait, please,” Sam reached out, and then slowly lowered his hand when Dean swiftly avoided his touch.

 

“We got work to do, Sammy,” the old nickname held none of the fondness that usually went along with it. “Call me if anything comes up that I need to know. If not, I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

“Morning?” Sam’s voice cracked on the word. “What?”

 

“Just getting a motel room,” Dean shrugged like it was no big deal. “Nice as that apartment is, I doubt it has more than two bedrooms, and I don’t think Jess would appreciate me crashing on the floor of your room for your reunion sex night.”

 

“Wait a second, dammit,” Sam reached for Dean again, and was avoided again just as easily.

 

“I’ll be back in the morning, so you better have coffee ready,” Dean forced a smirk. “Call me if you get anything, and uh, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, big guy.”

 

With that, he climbed into the Impala and started her up, ignoring Sam’s stuttered protests from behind him.

 

As Sam watched the taillights disappear around the corner, he sagged against the side of the building. How, he wondered, was it possible to be deliriously happy and yet feel like his heart was breaking into a million pieces at the same time?


End file.
